We Are All Ghosts in the Machine

I just pulled this off the Chronicle: Wired Campus Blog:

Administrators at Boston University have fired a part-time professor for making rather forward comments about one of his students on an online message board. Earlier this month, Michael Gee, formerly a columnist for the Boston Herald, posted to SportsJournalists.com about his first day as a college professor. In doing so, he referred to one student as "incredibly hot" -- a comment that he described, after the university dismissed him, as "pathetic, juvenile, and boorish."

If Mr. Gee's students had happened to come across the comments, they couldn't have taken long to figure out who the smoldering student was: Only six people are enrolled in the class. (Associated Press)

This is something I would never do. Hot? Students who are hot? Somebody's hot I say open the window. I am a teacher. Gender doesn't register on my pedagogical radar. Indeed, I am not perfectly certain whether my students have a fleshly existence or are pure spirit robed in shining light.

All I know for certain is they are very very quiet.